


Delicate Matters

by OneMoreNight1996



Series: The Brotherhood Chronicles [1]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, First Kiss, Growing Up, Menstruation, The Brotherhood Without Banners (ASoIaF), changing relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:14:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28009020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneMoreNight1996/pseuds/OneMoreNight1996
Summary: In which Gendry sees something that Arya doesn't want him to and it makes him realize that she's not a little girl anymore.
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Series: The Brotherhood Chronicles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2051472
Comments: 21
Kudos: 198





	Delicate Matters

He was ready to collapse into bed when they returned to the Crossroads Inn after enduring the fight against a group of Lannister soldiers but seeing as he shared a room with Arya, he quickly realized that he would have to wait. As soon as they stepped foot into the Inn, many members of the Brotherhood asked for ale or whatever food was being prepared that day but Arya went straight to Jeyne and asked for jug of clean water and a basin to be brought to the room and he knew that he'd have to wait to go up as it seemed that Arya intended to wash up before getting some rest. He surely wasn't going to go into their room when she was indisposed so he sighed and settled himself down at the table with Thoros and Beric, grabbing a cup of ale for himself, and ignoring the rest of the room.

Arya quickly disappeared upstairs, which was strange seeing as she usually liked to spend time with the men after a mission, but he shrugged it off. She had been acting a bit strange for the last two days in any case and he figured that whatever had her in a strange mood was also the thing that made her retreat so early. He just hoped that whatever it was, that it wasn't something serious that she was keeping from all of them. He tried to pay attention to the conversation going on around him but he couldn't keep himself from glancing at the stairs every few minutes. He had expected Arya to rejoin them, if only to grab something to eat before retiring to bed, but after a while without her reappearing he began to worry a bit. Perhaps she was feeling poorly, some of the children had caught a spring fever after all. He felt compelled to check on her.

He tipped his cup back, swallowing the rest of his ale quickly, before standing up and moving toward the stairs that led up to the rooms. Jeyne gave him a look that he couldn't quite read when he passed her but he shrugged it off as he took the stairs quickly. He paused at the door to the room and knocked lightly instead of just walking in like he normally would. It took a moment before Arya called for him to enter.

When he pushed the door open cautiously, he noticed that she had pulled out the privacy screen which made him breathe a mall sigh of relief because it meant that he couldn't see anything.

"I just wanted to check on you." He said quietly after clearing his throat.

"I'm alright." She said but there was a strained tone in her voice that made him think differently.

"Are you sure?" He asked cautiously.

"I'm sure." She replied. "Just go back downstairs. I'll join you shortly."

"Are you sure you're not catching the spring fever like the other children?" He asked. "You've been acting strange the last couple of days."

"I'm not a child!" She snapped and he rolled his eyes because of course she'd focus on that bit of his sentence.

"Still." He insisted. "You may be getting ill."

"I'm not." She said, finally stepping out from behind the screen.

She was wearing her night shift, something he'd gotten used to seeing her in long ago, and he concluded that she wasn't actually planning on going back downstairs that night contrary to what she'd said. She moved to place a few logs into the fire before moving to the bed to flip the furs back, obviously intending to got to sleep, and she glanced over her shoulder at him.

"Are you going to come to bed or were you going back downstairs?" She asked. "Because I'm tired."

"I was planning to come to bed before you decided that you needed to wash up." He said, raising a brow at her. "I'll stay."

"Alright then." She shrugged. "Could you blow out the candles then?"

He nodded before he began moving around the room and blowing each candle out until he reached the privacy screen. 

"We should put this away." He said. "It's sort of in the way here."

"Wait!" She exclaimed but he'd already slid it back to the wall.

He didn't understand why she'd wanted him to not touch the screen until his eyes fell on the basin of water and the rag next to it. It was a white linen cloth, he could see that, but this particular cloth had fresh red stains on it. It took a moment for him to process what he was seeing in his mind but the moment it clicked he spun to Arya with wide eyes.

 _Blood._ The rag was covered in blood. _Arya's blood._

He was moving before his mind even registered it, cursing himself for not realizing she'd been hurt earlier, and his eyes were tracing her skin looking for any sign of the injury. His hands were running along her arms as if that would help him locate the source of the blood so he could take a look at it himself.

"You're hurt." He said, a slight hint of anger in his tone that he tried to push down. "Why the fuck didn't you say anything, Arya?"

"I'm not hurt." She said, her cheeks tinged with pink.

"The bloody rag says otherwise." He said, barely glancing at her face as he continue his perusal, moving on to her legs.

He was knelt in front of her, his hands tracing along her skin once more, when she pushed him back lightly with her hands on his shoulders.

"Gendry, stop." She said firmly before repeating. "I'm not hurt."

"You're bleeding." He protested. "Seriously Arry, just let me see the injury so I can make sure you're okay."

"There is no injury." She said, stepping back from him as he reached out again intending to continue his search. "It's just....."

She trailed off as she tucked her chin into her neck and her cheeks flushed even more.

"Just what?" He asked, looking up at her.

"My moonblood." She muttered, pointedly avoiding his gaze, and he felt his mind freeze for a solid few moments.

"Oh." He breathed out, stunned by the words. "I didn't realize......I mean, I didn't think you were old enough for that."

"I told you, I'm not a child!" She huffed, spinning away from him and moving to crawl into the bed leaving him still kneeling on the floor.

He stared at her, with her back turned to him, as he tried to comprehend what he'd just learned. He'd forced himself to think of Arya as a child, especially when he'd suddenly notice her pretty face or her full lips, to force himself to put her in a certain category in his mind that made her untouchable even more than just her being a Lady. He'd never let himself think of the time passing or the fact that she was growing older just as he was but he now had undeniable proof that she was no longer a child.

He knew that it was going to make it a lot harder to keep himself from doing something entirely stupid now. Nothing had really changed and yet everything had. It was strange to look at Arya, the girl he'd met while she was tiny and dirty and pretending to be a boy, and think that she was a woman now. It was the one thing he'd been trying to avoid thinking for a long time.

"Are you coming to bed or are you just going to stay there gaping like a fish for the rest of the night?" She asked without even turning to look at him. She seemed to know what he was thinking without even having to see him.

"I can't." He said, finally regaining some of his common sense. Arya rolled over to glare at him at his words.

"And why not?" She asked, raising a brow.

"It's not appropriate." He said, finally climbing to his feet. "You're a woman now, you shouldn't be sharing a room and a bed with a man."

"Fuck's sake." She said, rolling her eyes. "I've been getting my moonblood for the last six moon turns and you've shared my bed for all of that time. Nothing has changed just because you're aware of it now."

"Everything has changed!" He insisted. "People will question your honor."

"Who?" She asked, sitting up to look at him.

"I'm sorry?" He asked. She rolled her eyes again, hugging her knees to her chest.

"Who is going to question my honor? Who is even going to care?" She asked, looking at him with a serious expression. "My family are gone, Gendry. There's no one for Lord Beric to sell me back to and no one to care if I remain pure. No one cares about my maidenhead, no one but you, apparently."

"I care because it matters Arya." He said, frustration leaking into his tone. Surely she understood where he was coming from. "You're a Lady."

"Am I?" She asked, shaking her head. "Perhaps once but no longer. To most people, Arya Stark died years ago. The Starks are gone now, my name means nothing anymore, nothing but a threat that other people would work to eradiacate because it serves their purpose. No one cares about me any longer, or are even aware that I'm alive, and I have no desire to go back to court life just to be sold off to someone who just wants access to my lands and titles. This is my life, here with the Brotherhood and with you, _this_ is the life that I have chosen and here, no one cares about my honor or my maidenhead."

"They do care." He argued. "Lem used to always box me around the ears for even messing around with you, always reminding me of my place. You can't tell me they don't care."

"And when was the last time Lem or Beric or anyone else said anything to you about it?" She asked, raising a brow. "I'm betting it's been a while because they no longer care. Before they wanted to make sure that I remained pure because they intended to sell me back to my family and they would have received much less if they returned me ruined but there's no longer anyone to return me to and so, they don't care. In fact, "She shrugged. "I'm almost certain that they already believe that we're fucking."

"What?! No they don't!" He exclaimed.

He would have noticed if they all thought that, mainly because they surely would have gelded him by now if they did. No matter what Arya seemed to believe, he didn't think that they'd all be so nonchalant about them being intimate with one another.

"If that's what you want to tell yourself." She said, a note of exasperation in her voice. "In any case, I'm sure that we can discuss this more in depth in the morning but I'm tired and I'm sure that you are too so come to bed."

Her telling him to come to bed had taken on a whole new meaning in his mind with the information he'd gotten that night and it was because of that that he was reluctant to crawl into the bed with her which left him shaking his head.

"I'm sure one of the others would let me share their room until I can figure out somewhere else to stay." He said, taking a step back toward the door. "This is inappropriate."

"Gendry....." His name was soft on her lips and it halted him in his tracks as she looked at him intently. "Don't do this. Stay."

"Arry....." He said hesitantly. "I can't."

"Why not?" She asked. "You've shared a bed with me practically since we met. There's nothing different now, I'm still me, still just Arya. It doesn't matter that I have my moonblood now."

"I don't want to hurt you." He said quietly. "I know you don't care but if people begin to question your honor, they'll begin to believe things about you that aren't true."

"I don't care about that. I don't care what people think." She said seriously.

"I care." He said, meeting her eyes. "I don't want to give anyone an excuse to say something bad about you."

"It doesn't matter." Arya said, looking at him with pleading eyes.

"It does." He reiterated before turning towards the door. He was about to pull it open and finally escape this room and this conversation when her voice called him back once more.

"Please Gendry." She said softly and his shoulders dropped.

Arya never said please, not for anything, and the fact that she was saying it now made him realize that she felt a bit more strongly about this than he'd realized. He leaned his forehead against the rough wood of the door and let out a long sigh.

"Why?" He asked, his voice just as soft as hers had been. "Why don't you want me to go?"

"You're the one constant in my life." She answered making him turn around to look at her. She was staring at him with an intense look in her eyes. "Ever since the day my father died, you've been there. We've gone through everything together, you're the one person in the world who understands everything because you were there too, and through it all, you've always stayed close. We've slept side by side for years, I've grown used to having you there." She bit her lip. "I feel safe knowing you're there if I wake up from a nightmare or if something were to happen. It's hard to sleep without you now, don't you understand?"

They stared at each other in silence while he tried to find something, anything, to say in response to her words until finally she continued.

"Please Gendry." She repeated. " _Stay._ "

She reached out for him and he knew that the smart thing to do would be to turn and walk out like he'd been planning to do but looking at her, with her shining grey eyes and pleading words, he couldn't deny her what she asked. He sighed once more and moved away from the door and back to her. He quickly changed into better clothes to sleep in and slid under the covers net to her. She turned her back to him once more and reached around to grab his arm and pull it around her. They typically slept either back to back or side by side but apparently Arya was feeling differently that night.

They laid there in the dark for a while as the firelight caused shadows to dance across the walls, so long that he thought she'd fallen asleep, but after a while she started drawing patterns on his arm. He pulled her closer to him, screaming at himself that this was a bad idea, and she seemed to sink into him after a few moments.

"Six moons?" He whispered, not wanting to break the quiet contentment between them. "How did you hide that?"

"I travel with a group of men, mainly." She said, a hint of amusement in her voice. "You're not the most observant lot, is all. Not when it comes to things like that at least."

"Aye, perhaps you're right." He said. "But you and I share a room. I don't understand how _I_ missed it." 

"I always made sure to clean up when you were busy, either in the forge or helping Beric or Anguy." She said. "When I knew you'd be gone for a while. That way, I could get rid of the blood soaked rags before you came back."

"Why hide it from me?" He asked.

"I didn't want you to treat me differently." She said softly, her fingers halting on his arm. "I didn't want you to treat me like a delicate little flower that was going to break or like a lady who couldn't do anything on her own."

"I wouldn't have done that." He said and she shifted slightly to look at him.

"You just tried to switch rooms because I'm a lady." She reminded him, raising a brow.

"Aye, but that had nothing to do with how fragile I believed you to be. You're one of the strongest people I know, woman or not. This wasn't about that." He explained, his eyes searching her face before coming back to hers once more. "All I meant by what I said was that you are a lady and I'm a lowborn bastard blacksmith. You don't deserve to have anyone questioning your honor, especially not with someone like me."

"There's nothing wrong with you." She said with a sigh as she rolled over entirely to face him. "Tell me this, if I wasn't a lady and I was just another common girl like Willow or Jeyne, would you have so many qualms about sharing my bed?"

He stared at her as he chewed on his bottom lip, a habit he'd picked up from her, and his brow furrowed as he considered her words. How would he feel if she was just a common girl, someone that was on the same level as him? He knew the answer almost immediately and for once, he forced himself to be brave enough to say it. He tried to never lie to Arya, after all.

"If you weren't a lady and we shared a bed like we always have, you'd already be mine." He breathed out and he saw her eyes widen slightly at his words. "Respectfully, m'lady."

She stared at him with her lips parted slightly and her eyes wide for long enough that he almost wanted to take his words back and apologize profusely but just as he was about to backpedal from his statement, she surged forward and pressed her lips to his. He froze in surprise for a moment before his mind seemed to catch up with his body and he moved his hand to cradle her face and tilt her a bit to deepen the kiss.

Her movements were unpracticed and he felt a sense of triumph and pride at obviously being her first kiss. He hadn't kissed very many girls himself but he did his best to lead her in what was supposed to be happening and by the end he felt a little dizzy. He pulled back and it took a moment for her eyes to flutter open and meet his and he leaned their foreheads together.

"We shouldn't do this." He said quietly.

"I think we should." Arya countered. "In fact, I think we should do it a lot."

"Arya." He breathed out. 

"I'm tired of being proper." She said seriously. "I'm not a lady, I never have been. This, _us_ , feels more right than any title or castle ever has. I want this, I want _you_. Do you want me too?" 

"Gods, I want you more than I've ever wanted anything." He admitted.

"Good." She nodded before surging forward to capture his lips once more.

He didn't even try to fight it, he knew he'd lose.


End file.
